He sat that night after the fight with cuts on his face and his dominance shattered but even in defeat Conor McGregor had to know he is still the best ticket the UFC has to sell. No name at July’s UFC 200 is more lucrative than his. And so the biggest fight the UFC will have at their biggest event was always going to be Conor McGregor against whoever draws the most.

According to a report on MMAfighting.com, the UFC is close to a non-title welterweight rematch of McGregor and Nate Diaz – the man who beat him in UFC 196 earlier this month. This makes sense, of course, it’s the fight that will bring attention, even if it isn’t the best matchup for either fighter.

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What really do McGregor and Diaz have to prove fighting each other? Their fight on 5 March was thrown together to save a card after McGregor’s scheduled opponent, Rafael dos Anjos, pulled out with a broken foot. Moving McGregor up 25lbs to fight Diaz at 170 was more a gimmick to preserve the day. That it turned out to sell 1.5m pay-per-views had a lot to do with the screaming and shouting and swearing the two men did in the days before the fight. But it wasn’t the ideal matchup.

After the fight McGregor said he thought he should drop back to a weight closer to 145 where he still holds the featherweight title. Names like Frankie Edgar or Jose Aldo (whom he knocked out in 13 seconds back in December) were tossed out. These sounded like appropriate opponents for him.

Fighting Diaz again seems more audacious than smart. The extra weight he put on to get to 168lbs appeared to wear him down. He complained of being inefficient in the fight, something his coach John Kavanagh also said to MMAfighting.com. McGregor seemed to spend more time showing off, trying to land heavy punches. He controlled the fight until the middle of the second round when he suddenly looked very tired.

But McGregor is a showman if nothing else. Despite the loss he actually fought well when he had his energy. Perhaps he thinks he can study his defeat, understand how to carry a much larger weight and fight with the same efficiency he had at 145. The most money is probably in another Diaz fight and McGregor does like to talk about money.

Diaz undoubtedly wants the most money too. And yet this fight is probably unfair to him. Just as McGregor has little to prove at a size where he has lost and doesn’t even hold a title, why should Diaz have to fight McGregor again? Putting the UFC’s biggest star in the rear naked choke in the second round should earn him some say over who he wants to fight next.

Diaz has complained repeatedly that the UFC is always giving McGregor “a boost” – favoring their Irish star with and his piercing, profane rants. Last week Diaz told Rolling Stone that he has never been offered a rematch after any of his 10 losses and wondered why McGregor should be given the luxury of having one. He said he would rather fight Dos Anjos, who beat him two years ago when he was injured.

The problem is that Diaz is not McGregor and even in defeat McGregor is the UFC’s biggest lure – the one who will justify whatever the UFC charges for seats in Las Vegas’snew T-Mobile Arena worth the cost. Pitting him against Diaz probably makes the most marketing sense. Conor McGregor’s second chance against the man who submitted him is juicier than McGregor and Dos Anjos.

And if McGregor loses to Diaz again he can always fall back to 145 where he still holds the title, starting over as the man who went too big and lost twice. That way, the UFC preserves a McGregor narrative while cashing in on the aftermath of the Diaz defeat.

But should Conor McGregor be about the best story? The most cash? Fighting Nate Diaz again might make headlines and yet it’s probably not the smartest play for a fighter who seems to care about his legacy.